Turn Your Back to the Forest
by At A Venture
Summary: When Bon Temps becomes the site of a series of murders, Sookie Stackhouse decides to investigate. Unfortunately, the supernatural element connecting these grisly murders could put Sookie's life in danger. Fairy Tale series.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This story is part of my new "fairy tale" series. Be on the look out for multiple chapters!_

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**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

_Chapter 1_

I walked into the bar at eleven, ready to start another Monday in May. Outside, the weather was just this side of perfect. The bright blue sky was dotted with big puffy white clouds, and a light breeze cooled the temperature down from a balmy and humid eighty degrees to a delightful seventy-five degrees. I could hear birds chirping happily when I walked from my car to the employee entrance behind Merlotte's Bar.

I wanted to spend my day outside, sitting in my cozy chaise in my brand new bikini. I had picked up one of those Diane Mott Davidson mysteries at the library, and I was all set to dive in. Darn it if Holly had decided not to show up for work on a Monday morning! I wish I had that kind of luxury. Okay, I know, Holly hadn't shown up because her son was coming down with chickenpox, but hell! I almost dropped the book on the damp grass when I hung up the house phone and stomped back inside. Sookie Stackhouse was not amused.

Sam waved to me from behind his desk, and like a lady, I stuck my head in to give him an annoyed snort. That'd teach him.

"Aww Sook," Sam frowned. He was adjusting the schedule to account for Holly's absence.

"It's fine, Sam," I sighed. For a second, I leaned against the door frame to his office. "It's not like I had anything better to do." Except that I did! I was reading, and then I was going to the mall in Shreveport with Amelia.

"I just called that new girl, Clarice? She can come in at three, so I can let you go then. I know today's your day off." He sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh," I brightened. "That's perfect! I can still get to the mall with Amelia!" Absolutely perfect, in fact. I'd been aching to see Claudine in her (un)natural habitat as a customer service whiz in department store returns. And of course, the sun would still be up awhile when three o'clock rolled around. Maybe I could get some tanning time in too!

I shoved my things in the cubby with my name on it before I grabbed a black apron off the clean laundry pile. I was tying the apron on when the bell over the front door rang. In walked the first customers of the day. I skipped out into the main restaurant and swooped on over to the booth in the farthest corner of the room. Detective Bud Dearborn and Detective Andy Bellefleur slid into the seats, pulled folders and papers out from under their arms, and laid the material out on the table. New case for the Bon Temps Police Department? It certainly looked like it.

"What can I get you boys?" I asked, putting a hand on my hip and smiling gently at them. Neither of these men were my favorite people, particularly after a series of crimes I'd dealt with a few years ago, but you can't be outright mean to people. I let my mood shine through my smile. I didn't have to be fake at all.

"Coffee," Bud grunted. He didn't even look up. Andy nodded, still addressing the papers on the table. Well, okay then. I turned on my heel and walked back to the bar to fetch the coffee pot Sam had put on a little while before. I reached over my head to grab a couple of mugs down from the upper shelf, and poured them two cups of steaming hot mud. I arranged some cream cups, sugar packets, and the coffee on a tray and carried it back. When I set the drinks down, I managed to get a quick look at the files. Neither of the men said anything about the coffee. I frowned, a genuine frown, and went back to rolling silverware.

Sam was sitting on the stool behind the bar with the Bon Temps Gazette unfolded in front of him. I leaned my elbows on the bar top and stretched out my mind to get a feel on Bon Temps' finest. Their thoughts were going a mile a minute, so I had to concentrate for a few minutes before I could get a good read on them. Andy Bellefleur brought the cup of coffee to his lips and took a careful sip. His hand shook just a little when he set the mug back down on the table. _I can't believe something like this could happen in Bon Temps! We are a community! Why would we be the site of a body dump? Children, for fucks sakes, they were only children. _My skin went cold, like I'd been pushed into a freezer. I hung onto the bar for support and reached back out to Sheriff Dearborn. He was hunched over the table, staring at the writing in a report. Bud Dearborn probably needed reading glasses, but he'd never let on that he was getting "weak" or getting old. _Just wait until I get my hands on the sonofabitch that did this. I'll rip that shithead limb from fuckin' limb. _

I turned around and grabbed Sam's paper. He blinked at me, but he didn't protest. After a moment, he looked over my shoulder at the two policemen deep in thought. Then he turned the pages so I could see the front, the most important news story in Bon Temps. There was a picture above the headline. It revealed four patrolmen (including Kevin and Kenya) stomping across the dewy morning grass on Sunday. They had two dogs with them, so I gathered that the two officers I didn't recognize were from the canine unit in Shreveport. A large wooded area was situated in front of them. I scanned down to the headline.

**Children murdered in Bon Temps Woods**

The pretty May day seemed to cloud over. I had to look out over my shoulder to make sure there weren't big black clouds covering up the blue sky outside. Nope, it was only in my head. The day was still intact even if I wasn't. I looked at the article while Sam took care of a couple that had just walked in. I hadn't even noticed them.

_Two as yet unidentified teens were discovered in the woods near the pond Sunday afternoon. The bodies were discovered by two Bon Temps High School students swimming out at the pond. The pond often attracts young people looking to escape the summer heat. The victims were found decapitated and holding hands. The Bon Temps Police Department delivered specimens of DNA to the state forensics lab on Monday morning. They hope to have results back by the end of this month, if not sooner. Sheriff Bud Dearborn issued a statement to the Gazette on Monday. "Bon Temps is a safe and happy community. We have no reason to believe that these victims were from our fine city. However, we intend to get to the root of this crime, to keep Bon Temps safe, and to restore the sense of security to our citizens. The culprit of these gruesome crimes will be brought to justice."_

Sam tapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped up. He rubbed my shoulder a little, then took the paper from me and folded it up under the counter. I looked over at the new customers, and saw that Danielle had brought in her little girl.

"Hey Danielle," I smiled. This time, though, I had plastered on that fake grin. I felt a queasiness in my gut that I couldn't push back down. I wanted to vomit up my breakfast. Those poor kids.

"Hey Sookie," she sighed. She looked over at her daughter drawing on her placemat with crayons. "Did you read the paper this morning?"

"Yeah, I just saw it," I whispered so as not to alert the police.

"It's horrible! I kept my girl out of school today. I don't know why really. I just couldn't stand to be away from her."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I don't even want to…" I frowned. I stopped talking and we just nodded at one another. Danielle ordered a grilled cheese for her daughter and a chicken basket for herself. I went back to the kitchen to give the order to the cook. Then I got a glass of milk and a Coke for the table.

Working in an eatery in a small town is pretty much akin to any kind of social networking website, like the ones that Amelia uses. She always telling me about them, but I have no use for stuff like that. I get all my news the same way Gran did. I wait for the calls to come in. Of course, I didn't have to use the phone. I could just open up my mind and the thoughts flooded my head. Owing to this unique fact, I listened to the news of the murders for four solid hours until Clarice came in to relieve me at three o'clock. There was a silent uproar in Bon Temps, with people wondering why the bodies of two children had been left here, why a stranger would pick our town for such a crime, and what sort of monster that person could be. Some people drifted instantly to vampires, because people like to blame what they can't understand. I only shrugged when people asked me what I thought.

I grabbed my things and headed out of the bar, but I didn't want to go to the mall anymore. I didn't really want to go home and listen to Amelia think about the murders. Instead, I wanted to see the site for myself. I don't know what compelled me to drive out to the watering hole out hear Tara Thornton's childhood home. It took a long while to get there in the car, and then I had to park on the side of the road and hoof it into the woods. I stomped into the clearing around the pond at five o'clock, and saw the police tape up all around the site. I crouched on the ground. The site of the "dump," as Andy Bellefleur had called it in his head, had been picked apart by police teams. The bodies had been moved, of course, and there were footprints around in the dirt. Something about the murder had pulled me out here. It had all just seemed so wrong, so grisly, so disturbing. Who would decapitate teenagers and leave them out in the woods? Why had they been holding hands when they died? Was that even possible?

I crouched, still and quiet, for several minutes. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something felt wrong. There was a sensation in my skin, a buzzing in my ear, or maybe it was a numbness in my gut. I don't know. But it was enough to a sensation to give me pause. I reached into my pocket for my cellular phone and stared at it. There was no signal way out here. So, I marched back through the woods to the car.

Leaning the phone against my ear, I waited for the end of the line to pick up. It rang and rang, but there was no answering machine. I didn't expect one. I was calling Merlotte's Bar. Finally, there was a click and a voice.

"Merlotte's, this is Sam," he said wearily.

"Sam, it's Sookie," I said. I paused so he could take that information in. Then I continued before he could ask questions. "Look, I'm at the site of the murders. Could you uh…come down here? I know this doesn't make a lotta sense, but I need your nose."

"Sookie, it's crazy down here. Why are you even out there?"

"I can't explain it." I shrugged. I couldn't. "I just had this feeling. Look, I'm still getting it now and I need to know if I'm just going crazy or if its real. Can you come now?" I wanted to sound urgent. I wasn't going to stick around until after dark, no matter how sketchy I felt.

"Fine. I'm leaving now." Good ol' Sam.

I got back into the car to wait for Sam, but the sensation…the whatever it was feeling…kept tugging at me. I didn't want to get out and trudge back into the woods, even though the sun wouldn't set for another couple of hours. There was definitely a safety issue, a Sookie gets lost in the woods near a crime scene issue. I wasn't going to risk it. I didn't want to risk it.

But here I was, getting out of the car. And here I was, walking back out into the woods. I stomped through the underbrush in my black sneakers and white socks. A branch of ivy caught on my shoelace and I hung back for a moment to untangle it. Was that just a coincidence? It had to be. The forest wasn't going to hold me back from an investigation, no matter how unnatural it seemed. Somewhere on the road, I could hear a car engine. I hoped Sam was out there. I heard barking. Yep, that was Sam.

"I'm back here!" I yelled, figuring he would understand that it was me, even if he no longer spoke English. I could hear movement in the foliage, a running animal that I prayed was Sam Merlotte, bartender and dog. A brown and white collie pulled up alongside my knees and I reached down to pet him. We shambled the rest of the way together.

There was something different this time, and I could really feel it. I knelt down at the edge of the police tape and closed my eyes. Sam snuck under the barrier and went to sniff around the actual crime scene. There was something, a presence, a feeling, and it lingered around the site like a fog. Sam whimpered, and I opened my eyes to see him sitting in front of me, his head down and his ears plastered against his skull.

"You feel it too," I said. Sam nudged my leg and I stood up. He wanted to get out of there. I wanted to stay. Reluctantly, I followed him out of the woods. But I kept looking over my shoulder.

Back on the roadside, Sam changed back into a man. I handed him his pants and he changed behind his car. I turned my eyes away by keeping them focused on the trees that I still wanted to walk back into. I needed to know more. When Sam was dressed, he walked over to me. His hand touched my hand.

"You felt it," I said to him without looking away from the trees.

"I felt it. I can't explain it, but I felt it."

"Maybe the killer wasn't human," I said thoughtfully.

"Maybe not. Look, whatever it was Sook, you have to stay out of there. It could come back."

"What if I can help though, Sam?" I mean, really, I had a gift didn't I? "What if I can get a sense of what happened out there?"

"How?" Sam asked me. I shook my head. No idea. "Just stay out, Sook. Let the police handle it, okay? We don't need you getting' hurt."

"Maybe," I said. I shut my eyes and fought the instinct to return to the woods for a third time. I knew if I just stood out there long enough, if I let that fog in, I could feel something more than a lingering presence. Maybe I could feel…or see… what had happened.

Sam waited until I was in my car, had started the engine, and pulled off onto the road before he got into his car. It was a huge effort on my part not to double back when he turned off the back road to Merlotte's. I drove home in a daze.


	2. Chapter 2

**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

_Chapter 2_

"Sookie, you're home!" Amelia called out from the kitchen. I followed the sound of her voice, and lurched into a chair. Amelia was shelling peas into a big blue bowl. The kitchen window was open, and a grass-scented air filled the room. Amelia had the radio on, but she turned it down to speak to me. A few strands of her brown hair fell over her eyes.

"Did you read the paper?" Her eyes went wide, and she paused in the midst of her task. A pea dropped out of the pod and fell into the bowl. It rolled down to the edge of the pile.

"Yeah," I frowned. My eyes dropped from the bowl of fresh peas to the table. I'd bought it after the fire that consumed most of my kitchen, but I'd wanted something that had a little bit of history. Rather than buying a brand new kitchen table, I'd picked one up at an antique store in Shreveport. This table was made of birch, but it had been painted a mild spring yellow at some point. The paint peeled slowly back from the wood. I picked at it with my fingernail.

Oh yeah, I'd heard about the murders. I'd heard about them from the minds of the police department, as well as the brain of every member of the Bon Temps community that had decided to go out for an afternoon drink. Usually Mondays were pretty quiet at Merlotte's, but when the town was buzzing with news, everyone decided they needed to get out of the house and gossip. Not only had I heard about the news through my own personal link to the Bon Temps social network, I'd visited the site of the crime, twice. Something just seemed to pull me out there. In fact, when I drove away, I had the craziest urge to go back. Every time I arrived at a fork in the road, I stopped, turned my chin over my shoulder, and stared back down the road. It was an effort to keep driving to the house.

Even now, I was antsy to return. I practically held onto the table legs.

"It's so horrible," Amelia sighed. She looked back out the window at the bright evening sky. It was May, but already the sun was staying up late. Tonight sunset wouldn't arrive until almost seven o'clock. I looked at the clock over our refrigerator. It was just six now. Amelia turned the radio volume back up.

"I'm making chicken. Is that okay?"

After I'd assured Amelia that chicken was okay and that I had an appetite (which I didn't), I walked out of the kitchen, through the living room, down the hall, and into my bedroom. I had an urge to call Eric, even though the sun was up. I knew he would be awake. He typically rose at five, whether the sun was up or not. He'd wander around his house without windows until the sun went down, taking a shower or reading a book, or just staring straight ahead in coma mode. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't want to talk about the murders. If someone mentioned them again before sunset, I knew I'd be throwing myself back into the car and driving back out to the site before you could say "Captain Morgan." I lifted up the phone and dialed.

"Sookie," Eric said into the phone. He had called ID. I wasn't surprised. I curled up in the middle of my bed, crossed my legs, and listened to his deep voice. I was not, NOT going to talk about the news.

"Eric," I tried to smile. The grin failed to appear. I heaved a sigh before I realized I was still on the phone with a man who actually cared about the sort of mood I was in. Crap.

"What is wrong, my lover?" Eric said instantly. Even though the phone, I could hear his concern. His blue eyes would darken a bit, and his mouth would form a line on his beautiful face.

"Just…I don't really want to talk about it. Tell me what's going on with you."

"Nothing is wrong with you? You aren't hurt?"

"No, no. Please, let's talk about something else."

"Tell me what you're wearing," he said. Okay, that was definitely a change in subject. I wasn't sure that I was really in the mood for sex at the moment, but anything was better than talking about the murders.

"My work uniform," I said. I thought about changing. The guys at the bar seemed to like our summer outfits which consisted of a pair of butt-hugging black shorts and a white tee shirt with cap sleeves. But I wanted to wear one of the pretty summer dresses hanging in my closet. I paused for a moment. "What about you?"

"Nothing. I have just awoken. I slept in the nude." That's when I stopped thinking about the murders. I stopped thinking about everything but Eric. Eric was a vision of male perfection, an absolutely breathtaking rendition of the male form. His pale skin rippled over the muscles in his stomach, chest, shoulders, and back. I imagined him lying next to me, his elbow propping up his upper body. His long hair would drape over his neck and shoulders like a curtain. My fingers curled up into a small fist. I wanted to pull him close to me and press my lips to his neck.

"Tease," I giggled. He chuckled on the other end of the line.

"Allow me to tease you, lover," he said. My hands moved where he directed them. His voice was so dark and deep that I thought the sound of it might jettison me straight towards climax.

When I hung up the phone, I was lying on Gran's summer quilt, with nothing between my naked flesh and the tendrils of sunlight that trickled in through my window blinds. The sun had finally set, but a hazy orange light still hovered over the horizon. My breath caught in my throat, and it took a big sigh of contentment to release it again. I heard Amelia calling me to the supper table, and with some reluctance, I got up from the bed. I pulled a flimsy white summer dress over my otherwise unadorned self. Then I walked out to the kitchen to eat. I'd finally worked up an appetite.

After supper, the stars filled up the sky. Amelia and I walked out onto the front porch to gaze up into the summer night. She'd made margaritas, even though it was a work night, and we sat on the porch steps. Fireflies darted across the lawn, filling the grassy lawn with as many stars as the brightly lit sky above us. I closed my eyes and took another sip of my drink. The tequila hovered in my head before washing through me. I love the feel of a summer night.

"Sookie," Amelia said. I didn't want to open my eyes. I didn't want to lose the feeling of bliss.

"Hm?" I hummed. I ran my hand through my hair.

"You have a visitor," Amelia said. A visitor? Eric, maybe? I opened my eyes and stared down at the foot of the porch. The glow of his skin told me that he was a vampire long before I lifted my eyes to see his face. My bliss sank like a stone, but I stuck on my anxious and false grin. Bill was standing there in the starlit night. He nodded his head at me, at Amelia.

"I'm just going to go inside," Amelia said. She got up before I could stop her and shut the front door behind her.

"Hey," I said, trying to sound casual. I patted the porch step beside me, and Bill came up the stairs and sat down. I was suddenly aware of how naked I was under my flimsy summer dress. I hadn't put on a bra or underwear. I tried not to blush.

"Have you read the paper?" Bill asked me. He was looking at me, but then he turned his face away. I frowned.

"I have." I said with a sigh. So I was going to have to talk about the murders again. Oh goodie.

"I believe it may not be all that it seems. Humans are cruel, but certain creatures collect heads for their personal amusement."

I blinked. I stared. I shut my eyes and took a large gulp of my drink. Okay Bill, that's nice, but too much information okay? These were children, found decapitated in the woods by the watering hole I used to play in when I was a little girl. Can we please try to remember that?

"Right," I said. I took in a deep breath, took another swig of my drink, and waited before I spoke again. "It's just horrible. I guess that the state forensics lab is really slow. Sheriff Dearborn thinks they won't have any identification evidence back until June."

"You read the sheriff?" Bill asked me. He didn't ask as though he were shocked. It was more of a casual, off-hand remark, sort of like "Oh, you bought a chicken at the market?"

"He was in the bar today." I nodded, just as casually. "So what sort of…uhm, creatures, I guess, take uh…heads?"

"Oh, a few varieties of demon. I am not too familiar with them, but I'm sure I could dig up some information if you are interested." Bill and his computer were attached at the hip. I wondered if he spent all his waking hours at the library when he was a human.

"Sure, thanks." I finished off my drink and stood up. It wasn't late, but I was suddenly extremely tired. "Look, I'm going to go to bed early tonight. Thanks for stopping by,"

Bill stood as well. He took my hand and brushed his lips against my cheek. Hello awkward!

"Sleep well, Sookie." He said. I walked inside, and he was still standing on the porch.

I left my glass on the kitchen counter, and walked back through the house to my bed. The night was wonderfully warm, but not hot. Still, I wondered what it would be like to sleep in the buff as my Viking had done that day. Oh heck, why not? You only live once, right? I shimmied back out of the dress and hung it on the back of my bedroom door. Then I took one of the lighter blankets out of the chest at the foot of the bed and spread it out over Gran's quilt. Naked as the day I was born, I slid under the light covering and closed my eyes. I'd never felt so comfortable. No fabric bunching up under my butt or in the spot between my hips and the mattress. I fell asleep easily.

The problem with falling asleep naked, I discovered, is that your dreams tend to involve nudity as well. There I was, once again, standing at the crime scene. I bent down in the piles of decomposing leaves and fresh spring grass. My fingers wove through the foliage. I brought my hand back to my face to look at what I'd picked up. My fingers were stained red. I stood up quickly and looked around. Police tape wove through the trees, encompassing the entire area, encompassing me. I was standing on the very spot where the children had been found. I knelt in the grass, and leaves tickled my inner thighs. I could feel the fog in my brain, like a lingering sense of wrong-doing. There was something here I needed to know. There was something I could learn, if only I could peel it out from under the fog. My shoulders began to shiver, though the night was unusually warm. I turned, blinking in either direction. Someone or something was watching me from the thicket of trees and fallen branches. I got to my feet and turned around.

And then I sat up. Well okay then. I rolled over to go back to sleep and saw that my cell phone had lit up. I grabbed in from the nightstand and flipped it open. Only one person ever sent me text messages, and I couldn't help but smile. _I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night, my lover._ I giggled and wrote back to him. I wondered if he was working on the floor that night, breaking down the barriers of "traditional" vampire customs by sending texts. _I'm sleeping in the nude tonight, just for you. _I giggled again and hit send. The response was almost immediate. _Are you teasing me? _I let out a real laugh and wrote back. _I don't know. Am I? _

We texted furiously for another hour, and I finally fell asleep. The dreams that followed me were of a more adult and much more pleasant nature.

The next day, I had a real day off, and I spent much of it out on the lawn, sunbathing. To keep out my intense desire to return to the murder site, I listened to music. I blasted it into my brain through a pair of headphones Amelia had given me. I slept in the sun for a little while, but came inside to avoid a burning. Amelia was standing on a footstool, cleaning the cobwebs out of the ceiling fan in the living room.

"What's going on?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" She blinked. "Oh, right. It's nothing really. I was just bored."

I shrugged and spent the rest of my daylight hours sleeping. After all, I would be up all night with Eric Northman, my Viking vampire boyfriend (is boyfriend the right term for a thousand year old vampire?), and I didn't want to be all sleepy. I woke up as the sun came down, and looked through my closet for something to wear. Where is that white, flimsy, oh yeah. I put it on the back of the door. I spent a long time getting ready—taking my time in the shower, putting on makeup, and shaving my legs. I put on a thin bra, but decided to tease him further by wearing nothing else under the dress. I slid my feet into a pair of silver flip-flops, and tripped out the back door to my car.

The bar was just opening when I arrived, and I took a spot in line behind two extravagantly dressed fangbangers. One, a young woman, wore a skin-tight black dress with a fishtail train. The man with her wore incredibly baggy black pants with suspenders but no shirt. I shrugged my shoulders and approached Pam. Her face brightened when she saw me. Because there was no line behind her, Pam took my arm over her own and led me into the bar. It was a Tuesday in May, and Fangtasia was quiet. I waved to Felicia as Pam and I waltzed through the club toward Eric's office.

"I love the dress," Pam grinned, showing a little fang. She leaned against me and kissed my cheek, then opened the office door. I smiled at her before I walked in.

Eric got up from his desk and walked slowly around to meet me. He was beautiful as always, dressed in an immaculate white button up shirt. Only half the buttons were actually in use, and I wished he'd just pull the thing off so I could admire him unadorned. Eric's arms slid around my waist and yanked me against his hips. My lips turned up into a grin and he bent his head to kiss me. We stood that way for a long time, making out like teenagers. And then my heart skipped a beat. Eric's lips fell away, and his hand touched my cheek.

"What is it?" He asked. His eyes filled with darkness, and his brow furrowed. I looked at him awkwardly. Couldn't we just make love here, and on the couch, and in your office chair, and then forget about all this? We couldn't, but I wanted to anyway.

"Two children, teenagers, were murdered in Bon Temps. The police found them on Sunday. It's been in the papers." I suddenly felt heavy, as though something were pushing on my shoulders. I wiggled free of Eric's arms and sat down on his sofa. The heaviness continued to weigh on me. I wanted to sink into the cushions. "I went to the site yesterday. I don't even know why I went, but I felt something there. I could just…there's something more to those murders than meets the eye. I just know if I can stay there long enough, I can get more…"

"I know about the crime," Eric frowned. He sat down on the sofa beside me and slid his arm around my shoulders. I leaned against his ribs. "The county commissioner contacted me on Sunday. He asked me to do some investigation at the scene, after dark."

What? I blinked and turned my head to look at him. He pulled back from me a little so that I could see his face. His lips were pressed together in a thoughtful frown. He had a slight shadow over his eyes from where his brow stretched out over them. I looked down at his hands.

"Why?"

"I have connections at the department. The commissioner does not have any vampires on his force with detective experience. Most of them are still quite young."

"Do you have detective experience?"

"Not exactly," he said, noncommittally. "But I am older. It will be easier for me to get a sense of the site." I didn't know how that was possible, but I didn't ask any more questions. Vampires were touchy about some subjects.

"Can we go now?" I asked. I could stand to go in the dark if Eric was with me. Maybe there was a better connection in the darkness. Maybe I could actually hone in on the mysterious feeling I'd been getting.

"Go…to the site?" Eric asked.

"I can't stop thinking about it. I had a dream last night that I was there. Please?"

Eric left care of the bar to Pam, and we were back out on the road again. The Viking took his time driving, staying under the speed limit to avoid being stopped. My thoughts drifted back to the murder site over and over again. The fog wasn't going to lift until I got there, and maybe not even then, but I couldn't help lingering over it. Eric's hand drifted over the console to rest on my thigh. I put my own hand over his and we intertwined our fingers. I could sense a curiosity inside him, and perhaps a little worry for me and my urgency. He didn't know what it was like, not yet, but we would be there soon. The site was on the outskirts of town.

I looked down at my filmy dress and inappropriate shoes, but I wasn't about to let them stop me. I yanked my Viking from the car, and we traipsed into the woods together. He followed behind me, but I never let go of his cool fingers. A sliver of moon hung in the sky, and I was incredibly glad to have it. Eric could see perfectly in the darkness, but I was in the lead. I stumbled over a piece of wood on the ground and broke through the brush into the clearing. Eric stood beside me. He was listening.

"Don't let go of me," I murmured near his shoulder. The last thing I wanted was to be lost in the darkness near a murder site. Eric nodded briefly and walked with me to the police tape. We flew over top of it and moved into the center of the taped circle. He set me down gently on the ground. The fog rose up around me.

"Do you feel it?" I hissed at him. I could feel it. It was everywhere, a heavy sensation of…something. I crouched against the ground and put my free hand in the grass. The ground was soft and damp, probably with the morning dew that collected here. Eric dropped down beside me and clutched my hand protectively.

"I can smell something, my lover, but I do not know the source." His voice seemed loud in the quiet solitude of the woods. I touched my damp hand to his mouth to silence him. I could hear something faint, but I wasn't sure what.

"Be still," I whispered. I clutched his hand tighter. Don't think, Sookie. Don't even breathe. Be absolutely silent.

And then, in the near pitch darkness of the woods, clutching my vampire's hand as if he might drift away, I heard it. The voice was tiny, as though it was running away from me without moving. I groped in the grass with my free hand, like I might find something hidden there. I shut my eyes so tightly that my temples throbbed in protest. I had to make out the voice. I'd never have any peace if I didn't. Straining and struggling, I touched my knees to the ground. My dress would be soiled but I didn't care. I repositioned Eric's hand on me so that he was touching my shoulder with his palm. He watched me carefully as I put both hands, both knees, both feet on the ground.

"You're my big brother. You protect me."

I gasped and stood up as though a jolt of lightning had raced through my insides. The fog lifted, and the forest was immediately silent. There was no lingering, no presence. I stared at Eric. He had his fangs out, and he was listening to the night. He clasped both arms around my waist and we were off the ground. He set me down on the hood of the car and touched my face.

"You have blood on your clothes," he said slowly, holding up the hem of my dress. There were dark stains where my knees had bent to the ground.

"Oh god," I whimpered. It wasn't the dress I was worried about. I had the stains of two slain children on my clothes. My skin crawled. Without thinking, I squirmed out of the gown and threw it into the foliage. I stood in front of the warm grill and covered my nakedness with my arms. Eric shed his shirt and draped it over me. Then he went to grab my clothing.

"What did you hear?" He was holding my hand, and we were back in the car. I pulled my legs up under the shirt and stared straight ahead. My lips felt dry, and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

"They were siblings."


	3. Chapter 3

**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

Chapter 3

He didn't comment once on my lack of skivvies, but opened the passenger door, slid his arms underneath me, and pulled me out. I looped my arm around his neck, and the Viking walked inside the house. Amelia looked up from the sofa, half-waved as Eric walked by, and returned her attention to a reality show marathon. I knew she hadn't expected us home, but there was nowhere else to go now.

Eric set me down on the tile in the bathroom, then knelt down on the floor to put the plug in the drain. I watched him, but my mind was elsewhere. When the tub filled, he scooped me up again and slid me into the water. I handed him his shirt, slightly damp, and leaned back against the tub. My dirty, slightly bloodied hands slithered beneath the surface. I leaned forward and he rubbed my back with a bar of soap. It took me awhile to speak, but eventually I found my voice.

"I don't know what happened," I said quietly. I knew he could hear me. I looked down at my hands underneath the water line.

"What exactly did you hear…or feel…?" Eric asked. He stood to take off his pants. Then he climbed into the tub behind me and pulled me against his chest.

"It was the smallest voice, like it was hidden in the ground somewhere. Does that even make sense?" I felt like an idiot. How could I hear the voices of dead people? Had I wiggled my way into an M. Night Shymalan movie?

"It wasn't the way you normally interpret thoughts?" He pushed me forward a little and drew my shoulders back to wet my hair. I shut my eyes and thought.

"No. Usually, it's just like a regular voice. It's like I'm hearing a conversation that…no one else can hear. But tonight, it was like I heard a conversation the already happened. I just caught the answering machine."

"You did not hear this before…"

"No. I only felt this sort of…heaviness, like someone was pushing on me." Eric moved me back up and grabbed the shampoo bottle from the ledge. I sighed quietly as he massaged my scalp. "Didn't you feel anything?"

"As I said, I could smell something in the trees. But I don't know what it was." Eric was frowning. I couldn't see his face, but I knew. I lifted my knees up against my chest.

"Do you think…" I worked the thought over in my mind. "Maybe I could only get it because you were with me?"

"You think it may have something to do with our connection,"

"I don't know. You know more about it than I do."

"You are different than the average human, my lover. I do not know all the ways in which the bond affects you, or affects how your gift may operate." He was working it out too, and he spoke in an unusual way, as if he were still learning the language. I slid forward and dipped my head back down into the bath. Eric's fingers ran absently through my hair. His mind was on other things. Neither of us was really here.

When my skin had begun to wrinkle, Eric stood up and stepped out of the tub. He took me by the hand and I yanked out the stopper. The drain coughed and gurgled as the basin emptied out. Eric grabbed one of my towels from the shelf above the sink and wrapped it around my shoulders. He touched his lips to my forehead.

"I wish I knew more," I murmured. Why had the site drawn me in? Why had the draw suddenly faded as soon as I got that…whatever it was? And how had I even gotten that…what was it? A thought? A voice? I didn't know. I ached to know.

"Come, my lover," Eric said gently. He led me into the bedroom and pulled a nightgown off a hanger. He held it up over my head and I lifted my arms like a child so that he could drop it down over my shoulders. The fabric was cozy and light, but as soon as I had the gown on, I wanted to take it off.

"Eric," I whispered as he turned down the sheets. He turned and looked at me. He was beautiful and naked, and though I was not in the mood, I wanted to touch him.

"Sookie," he replied, holding out his hand to me.

"Can you just hold me?" I felt a little silly asking. But Eric just smiled at me. I removed the nightie and dropped it on the floor near my feet. My Viking held up the quilt for me and I shimmied under it. He lay down beside me and draped both arms around my waist. I nuzzled his chest with my cheek.

"Do you think it's significant?" I asked him. His fingers were combing through my wet hair. I left a tiny kiss on his chest.

"Their connection, or ours?"

"I know our connection is significant. I meant the fact that they're siblings. Does it mean anything?"

"I don't know, Sookie." I lifted my eyes to look at his face. "We'll have to wait and see."

I had a day shift at eleven, and woke up a little before ten to get ready for work. Eric had spent the night holding me against him. It had been the first time I had pressed my naked skin against his (or anyone's) and not had sex. The cool temperature of his skin was a pleasant reminder of his company, even as I drifted off to sleep. Never once did he try to seduce me. Neither of us had really been in the mood for carnal acts. After a quick shower, I pulled on my uniform and walked out into the kitchen. Amelia had already left for work, but she left out some hardboiled eggs and a box of cereal for me. I ate them with my coffee, and then took off for the bar.

As soon as I unlocked the front door of Merlotte's, Andy Bellefleur walked in. I blinked and stepped aside to hold it open. He nodded at me, walked over to the bar, and sat down on a stool. I wiggled behind the counter and looked at him. I'd been working myself up to speak to Andy Bellefleur, and here was my opportunity, glum and ready for a stiff drink at eleven. I poured him a glass of water and he looked at me coldly.

"Andy, I have some…uh…something to tell you," I said. He shoved the water back at me, and he pointed to the bottle of vodka behind my head. I frowned. Things were probably pretty tough down at the station. There were no leads. There was no real evidence. There were no suspects.

"If you're going to lecture me on drinking before noon, Sookie, just save it,"

"No, I wasn't," I shook my head. "Barmaids serve drinks, Andy. They don't lecture. That's what Halleigh is for."

"I haven't seen hide or hair of my wife since Sunday." It was Wednesday. Poor Andy.

"Listen, I'll pour you this shot on the house, Andy Bellefleur, if you look at me for one minute while I talk to you." Andy looked up. I sighed. "Okay, so I went to investigate the crime scene with Eric Northman. He's working with the county on the case."

"I heard about that. Why were you there?"

"It's not important. What's important is, I know something." I know something you don't know, my mind said in a sing-song tone.

"Oh come on, Sookie, not today, okay?" _I don't need to hear your garbage about readin' thoughts and weird voodoo stuff. _

"You want that drink?" I barked at him. Thankfully, Sam couldn't hear me berating our only customer. He was in his office with the door closed.

"Fine. Tell me. What?"

"They were siblings, brother and sister. The brother was older."

"That's great, Sookie. So what?" He was salivating at the bottle now. I poured the drink.

"So it'll help you identify them!" I squeaked, slamming the shot glass down. Vodka spilled over the side. Andy practically leaned on the table to lick up the mess.

"And the murders? You know anything about how two bodies could appear in the middle of the woods where there ain't nothin' around 'em to indicate a third party? We found two sets of footprints all around, but nothin' of a third. Nothin'. How did the killer follow 'em through the woods? Eh? Where did their fuckin' heads go?!" Andy knocked on the bar for another drink. I poured it.

I didn't know the answers to his questions.

"Look, can you just do a search? Missing siblings in Louisiana?" I was pouring his fourth shot. The bar was incredibly quiet, filled only with Andy Bellefleur's labored breathing.

"Fine. Fine. Just pour me another one."

Things quieted down in Bon Temps after the murders. Things went back to normal. People stopped coming in for random lunches to discuss the new gossip. They stayed home and talked on the phone instead, I suppose. I worked the day shift on Wednesday, and the night shift on Thursday. I followed up with a Friday day shift to switch with Clarice. I went home on Friday evening to change before driving out to my favorite vampire bar.

The club was hopping by ten o'clock when I parked in the employee lot and knocked gently on the outer door that led into Eric's office. He opened it before I could knock a second time, and he swept me into his office. Things had been so calm in the last few days since I'd seen him last. I'd finally regained some sense of joy, as well as some other important senses. Eric tugged me against his chest and pressed his mouth to mine. His tongue slid between my lips and we were locked in a good solid kiss for several intense and enjoyable moments.

"Let's go somewhere else," I growled softly when our lips parted. Not that I hadn't had some very exciting moments in Eric's office, but I wanted to feel free to take off all his clothes without Pam walking in on us.

"Two minutes," he grinned at me. I sat down on the edge of his desk and he took off into the bar. While he was gone, I scooped myself up and bounced into his big black desk chair. I'd been liberal with my clothing choices again, opting for a simple, slightly sheer pink summer dress that came down to my knees. I wore a lace bra underneath, and a matching lace g-string that covered the bare essentials…barely. To welcome my lover back, I put my legs up on top of the desk and leaned back in the chair. The skirt wandered down my thighs, gathering at the hip. I leaned back as far as the chair would allow. The position was surprisingly comfortable. The door opened and Pam walked in, followed by Eric. Pam raised an eyebrow and blew me a kiss. Eric practically dived over the desk to kiss me. His hands fell on my hips, and he gathered the dress up under me.

"Mm, enjoy," Pam grinned, pulling the office door shut again.

Eric gathered me up in his arms and we were heading back outside. He set me down gently in the passenger seat of his Corvette and raced around the other side to get in. Of course, vampires have an agile grace and move pretty fast, so he didn't look as eager. It suited him. When he put the engine into gear, I reached over the parking brake to unbutton his jeans. Eric raised both of his eyebrows and looked down at me before returning his eyes to the road.

"In a particularly good mood this evening, my lover?" He asked, chuckling. He lifted his hips a little and I squirmed the pants out from underneath him.

"I may have had a little something to drink at dinner," I confessed. It was Friday night after all. I'd stopped at a little Mexican restaurant on my way to the bar, had a margarita…with an extra shot.

"Mmm, intoxicated Sookie, my favorite," he teased. His hand dropped from the steering wheel and ran through my hair. My hand dove into the black boxer briefs he'd decided on that evening. I giggled. My fingers wrapped around him, and I squirmed around until his graceful flesh was free.

"It's sort of like the prize in a box of cereal," I grinned. Damn, I was practically giddy with delight. On the other hand, if you'd found that prize in your Cheerios, you'd be pretty giddy too.

I had to pull my lips away from him when we arrived at the house, but I didn't have to wait long. Eric didn't even bother with putting the little Viking away. He simply picked me up, carried me into the house, and set me down on the floor. I was back on my knees in no time, murmuring happily while Eric's fingernails tore through my hair and scratched the back of my neck. My Viking leaned back against the front door, his hips moving rhythmically.

The whole night went on with a similar theme. Together, we experienced ecstasy in the living room, over the desk in his office, on every stitch of bed-clothing, and in the bath tub, twice. I leaned heavily on his chest, panting. The bubbles had at last receded, and the water had a murky foamy white color. I couldn't think of anything to say, so I left small kisses on Eric's shoulder and neck. His fingers drew small spirals on my hip. I could barely stay awake.

"Remind me to get you drunk more often, my lover," Eric grinned. He pressed his lips to my damp hair. I giggled sleepily in response.

"What can I say?" I shrugged. "It's the tequila. It always throws me for a loopdeloop." I spun my finger to show him. He took my hand and kissed my fingertip.

I woke up in the morning giddy with post-coital bliss. Eric had wrapped himself around me in his sleep, and it took a few minutes to extract myself from the tender but quite heavy arms of a sleeping vampire. When I was free, I snuggled into the white fluffy bathrobe hanging on the door of the bathroom, and went to find a glass of water and the morning paper. I sat down on the cozy black leather sofa that ran along the back wall of the living room, and after taking two sips of fresh tap water, I glanced down at the morning paper.

And then I was back up on my feet again.

**Cemetery employee finds bodies of children**

Oh fuck oh fuck.

I scotch-taped the morning paper to Eric's mirror so that he would see it when he woke up that evening. I also left him a note. Eric had driven me to the house, but my car was still in the Fangtasia parking lot. I took his car keys and drove back to the bar. I didn't stop at home to change. I didn't call Sam at work. Instead, I crunched over to the scene and watched, in horror, as the county coroner drove away with the bodies of two deceased, beheaded teenagers. My stomach turned over. I walked away from the cemetery, just yards from my front steps, and vomited in a bush.

Eric and I had been making love like sailors on leave, and at the same time, children were being murdered in the cemetery between my house and Bill Compton's. I wondered where he'd been that night. What had he been up to? And what about Amelia? Did she have a date? Was she home? Had she heard anything? Even with all these thoughts racing around in my brain, I could feel that lingering, that fog that had plagued me earlier that week. I sat on the grass near an old tombstone and watched Kevin and Kenya inch over the scene, taking pictures and looking for evidence.

"Sookie," Andy Bellefleur looked down at me. He crouched on the ground. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked as though he hadn't slept in days. He ran his hand over his scalp and heaved a great sigh.

"Andy," I frowned.

"Forgive me for asking, but where we you last night?" He touched my shoulder, and used the balance to pull out his notebook.

"I was in Shreveport," I said in a voice so tiny I wasn't sure he'd hear me. "I was with…" What was Eric? My lover? My boyfriend? My own personal Viking bodyguard? "I was with my boyfriend, Eric Northman."

"The vampire," Andy Bellefleur said, as if he were hoping to clarify that yes, Sookie Stackhouse was still dating a vampire, just a different one.

"Yes," I sighed.

"What about your roommate, Amelia Broadway?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask her."

"Fine. That's…that's fine." He shook his head and stood up.

I stayed at the site all day, in that same spot on the grass, my back resting on a tombstone. The fog was thicker now, but I could feel it…the…whatever it was. Was it a clue again? Was it a residual thought? A feeling? I didn't know. I wouldn't know until sunset. Whatever was out there, I wouldn't be able to feel it until Eric arrived. So I waited.

"Sookie," Eric's voice called in the darkness. I looked up. I'd fallen asleep waiting for him all day, but I was wide awake now. He held out his hand to me and pulled me up by the wrist.

"It happened again," I said quietly. There was no anger in my voice. It had happened already and I couldn't do anything about it now. But that didn't mean I couldn't stop it right here. No more. This was all sitting far too close to home.

"So it appears," Eric nodded. He moved to pull me into an embrace, but I shook my head. We needed to find the answers now, and there wasn't any time to waste.

"I can already feel it. I've been feeling it all day."

"Didn't you have to work tonight?"

"I didn't go." I didn't even call. Sam would be angry with me, but I couldn't think about that now. All I could think about was the lingering sensation, the possibility for answers. I grabbed my Viking by the hand and yanked him with me under the police tape.

"I can offer nothing of assistance. There is a smell, but I do not know the source." Eric said behind me. I shushed him with a hiss. I bent down in the grass and felt around. In the wooded cemetery, the moon was almost impossible to detect. It was nearly pitch with darkness. I placed both hands and both knees on the ground. My dress was short. It only dragged on the grass a little bit. Eric crouched beside me and touched my bare shoulder. I closed my eyes.

Don't think. Don't breathe. Don't move. Just listen.

I listened with my ears, my mind, even my skin. There was something out there. It haunted me like a ghost. It reached through the ether like invisible fingers. I could hear it in the light rustle of the trees.

"You don't know where we are. What are we going to do?"

I felt tears sting my face. I sat up in the grass and looked up at Eric. He lifted me up and wiped the damp streaks from my face.

"They were lost," I whispered to him, my voice catching in my throat.

"You can't stay here, my lover," he grunted as he led me out of the cemetery, back toward the house.

"What are you talking about? Of course I can." Had he even heard me? There were children out in the woods, lost and alone. Something had savagely murdered them!

"Pack some things. Come back to Shreveport with me. We will deal with the case there." He stopped at the bottom of the porch steps. His hands were holding my arms.

"No! I'm staying here. This is my home."

"It isn't safe," Eric protested. There was fire in his eyes. But I wasn't giving up easily. I had to work the next day. I had to talk to Amelia. I would probably have to talk to the police again. I wasn't going to hole up in Shreveport like some kind of…of…mole!

"I'm not leaving!" I stomped up the stairs after writhing out of his grasp. Eric followed me.

"Damnit, Sookie! I can't protect you during the day! If that…if whatever that thing is tries to get at you…" His worry filled me up and sagged my shoulders. A part of me wanted to yield to him.

"Nothing is going to get me! I'm not a teenager! I can't get lost in Bon Temps! This is my home, Eric! I've lived here all my life."

"But you have a sibling, Sookie." He twisted his mouth. We didn't talk about Jason much. But he was right. I was a sibling.


	4. Chapter 4

Turn Your Back to the Forest

Chapter 4

Yep, I definitely had a brother, albeit an irresponsible brother that I hadn't spoken to in months. I walked into the house, with Eric following behind me. The door slammed. I stalked into my bedroom, the Viking following my tracks like some kind of very large, very angry, very handsome puppy. Like, you know, the Rottweiler version. He had stopped ranting and raving at me. I wasn't giving up. I was not going to put my tail between my legs. I was staying in Bon Temps.

"And that's all there is to it," I was saying to him. Still in weird angry puppy mode, Eric growled at me.

"Just because neither of us mention your deadbeat brother doesn't mean that this…thing isn't thinking about him. The two of you are powerful, Sookie. Jason is a moron, but he's part fae, just like you. And now he's a were on top of that!" Eric crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at me.

"What does my being part fairy have to do with any of this?" I narrowed my eyes. Did he know something I didn't know?

"Nothing, nothing yet. But we do know that whatever is going on has a supernatural odor to it. You can feel it. Sam and I can smell it. This isn't a human thing, Sookie. It's something much more…what's the word? Intense."

"I'm not leaving." I grunted. I sat on the edge of my bed. It seemed to thud under me.

"I can't stay here in the crawl space," he touched my face. His eyes sank into mine.

"I'm not asking you to stay here. I'm not in danger."

"Sookie, you attract danger like a fairy attracts vampires."

Point taken. I seemed to find trouble wherever I went. But this wasn't one of those times! I wasn't in danger. I was the investigator, not the victim!

Eric and I fought for another half-hour, but finally he gave up. I wasn't going to budge, and damn it, he had to accept that. My Viking left in a huff, grouchy that he hadn't gotten his way. I was relieved, if a little sad, to see him go. I had other fish to fry. Amelia would be home soon, and she and I needed to talk.

The police stomped around the cemetery for two days, but found nothing more than they had at the other crime scene. I watched them until I had to go to work, and Sam berated me for not showing up the previous day. The shift was long and tiresome and irritating. Of course, it was the weekend. We were busy at the bar, and things had picked up with the news. Everybody wanted to talk, and when they weren't talking, they were thinking. My face hurt with grinning, and when I left the bar, I took the bottle of Sleepytime Tylenol out of my glove compartment, popped three pills, and drove home. I was half-asleep when I got in.

Eric was sitting on the chair in my bedroom when I slouched in and took off my uniform. I nodded at him and crawled under the covers without a word. It wasn't unlike him to show up and wait around until I came home from work, and he often let himself in. My mouth gaped open with an incredible yawn and I wiggled around until I was comfortable. I could feel Eric's arms around me when I drifted into slumber land. Even though we'd been fighting the day before, there was no one I would rather be with.

I was running. My calves burned and ached. I looked down to notice that I was barefoot. My feet tread heavily on the foliage and dense decomposing leaves that covered the forest floor. I couldn't see in any direction, but I knew I had to keep running. My heart was pounding in my chest. I'm lost. I'm lost in the woods. I can't see a fucking thing! But if I stop… if I stop it will get me! It will kill me! Jason! Where the fuck are you?! Help! Somebody help me! Jason! Please! Something whipped around my leg and I squealed in pain. But I couldn't stop running. The ground rose up, and I keeled forward. Arms sprawling, I crunched heavily against the ground. It's breath was on the back of my knees. It could breathe. I tried to get up again, but something pinned me against the earth. Jason! Please!

I woke up screaming, panting. I sat up straight in bed and shoved the blankets away. Sweat trickled down the sides of my face. Eric's arm slithered around my waist.

"Ssh, Sookie," he said gently. He pulled me back, tucking me into his body. Every fiber of me was tense with fear. I hate nightmares. But then, who doesn't?

"I couldn't get away," I whimpered. My tears wet his skin. You know that part in Gone with the Wind where Scarlet wakes up from her nightmare and Rhett comforts her? That was always my favorite part. It felt a little silly being in that same situation. I cowered against my own Viking protector and wept.

"It was only a dream, my lover," he murmured near my earlobe.

"I was alone. Jason…he abandoned me." My arms rose up around his neck. I clung to him as though he might leave me too.

"Ssh, easy," he hushed me. His lips were tender on my forehead. I wanted them on my lips. My eyes rose to meet his. I held onto him tighter.

"Eric," His blue eyes met mine. Through our bond, I could feel his concern, but it was so relaxed. Dreams were nothing to be frightened of, and he only wanted to reassure me.

"Sookie, my lover," he replied. His voice was a whisper, smooth like silk on his tongue.

"Make love to me," I said quietly. "Keep me safe?"

The Viking pulled me closer, his naked body tight against mine. His cool lips found my mouth, tucked away near his arm. My throat released a moan that I hadn't realized I was holding. My forearms curled up against his chest, pressed between us, and I huddled there as we kissed. One of his hands bent down between my thighs, and I parted them slightly. His fingers stroked the tender pink skin of my innermost lips, and I squirmed to be closer to them. Never letting me go, he wriggled between my thighs and entered me. The movement was tender, wary of my previous fright, attentive to my desire for safety. When he was inside me, he gathered me up in both of his massive arms and held me to his chest. Nothing would get me as long as the Viking was with me.

I'd done a 180, from fierce and independent to meek and dependent on a big strong man's protection. I was the spitting image of Miss Scarlett, and I didn't even realize it.

I woke up at midday, the blankets wrapped tightly around me despite the heat. The windows were open, and the sun stretched in through cracks in the drawn shades. I sighed and rolled out of bed, aware of the fact that I had another night shift stretching ahead of me. Oh boy. More thoughts about dead children to fill my night with dread. I padded down the hall to the kitchen. My stomach was rumbling for lunch, even though it usually took me a few minutes to get hungry after waking up. I had had a little activity before finally falling back to sleep last night, but the event had been sweet, tender and soft. I was amazed that a vampire could be that gentle. I'd been with him. He'd been inside me. But we hadn't raced toward orgasm or even made it our priority. We simply were, tied together physically and bonded…what…magically? It didn't matter. We were part of one another for a long time, and I clutched onto him until I fell asleep in his embrace. I remembered the whole experience with a song in my heart. That had been a night to remember forever.

Amelia had left for work by the time I woke up. I scrounged around in the fridge looking for lunch, and made up my mind to have peanut butter and jelly on toast. Amelia had made sun tea the previous week, so I poured some into a glass with a wedge of orange. Through the open kitchen window, the sun beat down on me. Mmm. I was still half asleep, warmed by the sun, and I had a good mystery that had nothing to do with murder waiting for me. The best place to enjoy it was outside on the porch.

After I'd made my sandwich (with a little bit of margarine on the jelly side so the jelly doesn't soak in to the bread), I grabbed my book off the coffee table. To get the most exposure to the warm afternoon sun, I'd have to sit on the front porch. I opened the front door and pushed open the screen. The sun hit me like a brick as I stepped outside into its fingers of warmth. I opened my eyes and put a hand up over my forehead like a visor. It was hard to see with the white-painted steps and the glowing sun. The deck was hot under my bare feet. And it was slippery too. I blinked and looked down at my feet.

And then I saw it. My book fell out of my hands and thudded against the porch. The liquid mess splattered as it hit, and a shower of bright red blood flew up against my shin. The stairs were dripping with blood. It was everywhere. In pools. In puddles. In piles of gore. On the first step, their hands awkwardly gripping one another, lay two headless youths. Tears welled up in my eyes, but the scene wouldn't blur. My legs threatened to give, and if I fell, I'd be knee-deep in the cast-off body goo of dead teenagers. Somehow, my fingers found the door. I went back inside. There would be bloody footprints on my hardwood floors. Amelia would be so pissed. She'd have to clean them and wax them.

I could volunteer to do it for her. I'd cleaned up blood on my floor before.

The phone shook in my hand, and I dropped it. It hung by the cord and wobbled back and forth like a body on a hangman's noose. I found my voice, muttered an obscenity, and picked up the phone. They teach you to dial 9-1-1 in emergencies and it's glued into your brain even when the rest of you doesn't work.

"Bon Temps Police Department," said Julia Dearborn, the Sheriff's daughter. She'd been working at the police department all her life, and I was pretty sure she'd rather have any job than police dispatcher today.

"Yes, hi." I said. I tried to sound casual. I wasn't in danger. I wasn't hurt. "This is Sookie Stackhouse." There are bodies on my porch. Bodies. On my porch. There are bodies on my porch. On my porch. On. My. Porch. Bodies. "Could you please send a policeman over here? I uh…I…" Bodies on my porch. Bodies. On my porch. Bodies. "I…"

"Certainly, Miss Stackhouse. What is the nature of your incident?"

"M…uh…I can't…" I couldn't get the words out. I couldn't even say them. There were bodies on my porch. Sometimes it would be nice if people could read my thoughts.

"Are you in trouble, Miss Stackhouse? Can you get to a safe place?"

"It isn't…I'm not…" I'm not in danger but it isn't safe here. Oh fuck why does the sun have to be up now? Why? Why can't it be dark? Oh fuck. There are fucking BODIES on my fucking PORCH. "I need to get some rags." I need to clean up.

"I'm sending a patrolman over, Miss Stackhouse. Stay calm. You just stay on the line with me. Tell me what's going on."

"I need some rags." I said again. I hung up the phone. The police would be here soon and I wasn't going to have them come over to a dirty house. And I needed to call…Eric. He would laugh at me. He was right. I should have come to Shreveport. I couldn't think about that now. I grabbed my cell phone and went back out to the porch with a mop and an empty bucket.

"Eric," I said into his answering machine. "It's Sookie. I need to see you. Bye." There. Brief and not dramatic. I looked into my bucket and realized I couldn't clean up without any water.

I had to walk down the porch steps to get to the spigot in front of the house. There was an arm blocking my path. I couldn't get down. I looked down at my feet. They were soaking in an inch of blood and sinew. I was suddenly reminded of my Gran, lying in her own pool of blood, in my kitchen.

I had spent all day cleaning up after her. My Gran wasn't a messy person, but when she made a mess, she did it right.

Gran would have whipped me a good one for making such a huge mess on the porch steps.

My cell phone rang in my hand. I looked at it but I didn't really see it. I answered.

"Hey Sook," It was Amelia. "Do we need anything else besides eggs?"

"Rags," I said. We would need lots of rags.

"Oh okay, cool. I'll see you…oh wait, you're working tonight huh? Well, I'll see you around then!" She hung up.

I sat down on the porch. I had to wait for the patrolman.

Kevin and Kenya pulled up outside my house. The gravel kicked up a little, and I'm pretty sure a few pebbles ended up in the puddles of gore on my porch steps. I looked up. Kevin got out of the car and pulled out his gun. Kenya was stomping around the other side of the car. I'd been sitting still for so long that my foot had fallen asleep.

"Miss Stackhouse, please put up your hands." Kevin said. He sounded sorry. I didn't blame him.

"I need to get some rags," I said.

"Kevin, call the sheriff. I don't think Sookie had anything to do with this…this…" Kenya pointed at my messy porch. I hadn't had time to clean up. I couldn't reach the spigot.

"Right," said Kevin. He got back in the car. I could hear the muffled sounds of his radio.

"Sookie, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Kenya was talking to me from the foot of the porch. "I'm coming around back. Just stay there."

"I'm sorry I couldn't clean up for you," I told Kenya when she popped out the front door. She surveyed the scene. "Gran would kill me if she knew I let guests come over."

"Easy, Sookie. Are you hurt?" Her hand was on my shoulder.

"No." I said. I remembered that I had had a sandwich. Where did I put it?

"Can you stand up?"

"Yes." I stood up. The floor was slippery. My nightgown was wet. My skin was also wet.

"We need to take you down to the station, Sookie." Kenya said. She helped me walk back through the house. I wanted Eric, but he wasn't awake yet.

"Eric," I said. I held up my phone. It wasn't ringing.

"We'll call him from the station." Kenya said quietly. I didn't know Kenya could be so soothing. I followed her out of the house. I turned around to see wet red footprints on the floor.

At the station, Andy Bellefleur asked me questions. I'd lost my voice again, and I couldn't find it. I wasn't sure I even wanted to talk about the state of my porch. They'd brought in Amelia too, and I could see her walking by the window of Andy's office. I wanted to wave to her, to smile, but I wasn't feeling terribly up to it. I was at the station for hours. Andy Bellefleur consulted with the Sheriff. They were placing me in protective custody. I knew a man in Shreveport. They'd call him. I gave them my cell phone. It was dark by then.

I couldn't hear them on the phone, but I knew Eric would probably bristle. He'd worry about me on the way over. He'd be angry when he got here. I'd get blood on the seat of his Corvette. I couldn't take him to my house to get clothes. My stomach growled, but I didn't feel like eating. When Eric finally walked in, I was sitting on the interview chair and shaking. I looked up at him, and my lower lip trembled a little. The whole scene came rushing back to me. There were bodies on my porch. Eric lifted me into his arms. I didn't feel safe in them. I felt cold.

"I smell like blood," I said finally when we were in the car.

"We'll get you cleaned up, my love," Eric said. He reached out to touch my arm. I flinched.

"I'm not safe." I rolled the words over in my brain. Definitely not safe.

"You're safe with me, Sookie." He didn't reach out to touch me again. I wasn't sure.

"I'm not," I said again. I wasn't. Eric couldn't protect me. It would find me…whatever it was.

"Sookie," he stopped the car. We'd rolled up in front of his house and I hadn't even noticed. He was out of the car, around it, and hauling me up in his embrace before I'd even registered that the engine was off. He held me against his chest. But I didn't feel safe. "I have you. I won't let anything hurt you."

We sat down together on the sofa. Like the other night, he pulled me into his body and pressed his lips against my hair, my forehead. But I wasn't safe here. I wasn't safe anywhere. I only cowered. I couldn't even cry. There was a knock at the door. Eric got up to answer it. I grabbed at the couch cushion and tucked it into me where Eric had left a void. Bill was standing in the doorway.


	5. Chapter 5

**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

_Chapter 5_

I tucked the pillow against my chest and leaned my chin on it. I raised my eyes slightly so that I could see Bill and Eric in the doorway. Eric stepped aside and Bill walked over the threshold. He stalked across the room and crouched down on the floor so suddenly beside me that I thought his knees would crack. They didn't. I looked at my former lover through watery eyes. He looked more pale than usual. I couldn't tell what he was feeling, but his eyes said anger, hurt, frustration. Some part of me wanted to be nearer to him. Most of me just wanted to feel safe again. Eric sat back down on the sofa and lifted me back across his lap as though I were a child. I discarded the pillow in favor of his torso. I reached out a hand to Bill, which he took without reluctance. His arms embraced me under Eric's, and he pressed his head against my lap. There I was, pressed between two vampires. They were the strongest men I knew, the only men that could really keep me safe from whatever was out there. But I didn't feel safe.

"I saw the police," Bill said, more to Eric than to me. "They sent Amelia to safe housing, though I do not know where. They would not tell me where Sookie was sent. There could only be one place."

"The Sheriff called me on her mobile phone. I picked her up at the station. We've only just arrived."

"Sookie, I'm so…were you home last night? Did you hear anything?" Bill touched my arm. He looked up at me.

"I didn't get a chance to clean up," I said quietly. All I could think about was the mess on the porch steps. They were all walking through it now. They were tracking bloody footprints on my stairs, on my gravel, probably through my house. I twisted my face up with disgust.

"She's in shock," Eric said over my head. I curled farther into his torso and closed my eyes. I pulled Bill's arm over me like a blanket. "I'm surprised…with all that she has seen." His hand touched my hair. I wanted to cry, but the tears only lingered behind my eyelids.

"They found the bodies in much the same state as the others…" Bill was going on. I shut him out of my mind. I closed my eyes and tried to think about other things. My eyes popped back open immediately. All I could see were their hands, clasped in a frozen bond of fear. A shiver rolled through me. Eric's hand rubbed my spine.

"I want to shower," I said. I shrugged Bill away, and wiggled out of Eric's lap. Without their hands on me, I felt naked and strange. My hand stretched out for one of them. A fist closed down around my fingers. "Don't leave me." I whispered to both of them.

"Come, my love, we'll get you cleaned up." Eric said gently. My head turned to see him, and then looked past his face to Bill's. I reached for him, and he instinctively took my hand. If Eric cared, I didn't. I didn't want to be alone.

"Bill's coming too," I said. Eric said nothing, but he nodded at Bill and lifted me up from the floor. I slid my arms around his neck and looked over his shoulder at Bill, who followed us down the hall to the bathroom.

While I showered, both of my vampires lingered silently in the bathroom. A part of me wanted to crouch on the floor under the faucet and cry, but the tears still would not come. I turned off the water and Eric handed me a towel. I sighed. I didn't have a nightgown to wear. On another day, I would have said, "Hey, it's May; it's warm enough to sleep in the nude." But tonight, I didn't want to be naked. If something came after me in the night, I wanted to have all my clothes on.

"Here, my love," Eric said while I shivered in the towel. Water ran in rivulets down my legs. He put a tee shirt over my head. It swallowed me up to the upper thighs. It would have to do. I had no other options.

"I don't want to go to sleep," I said. I felt like the little girl with the temper tantrum. I didn't want to go to sleep. I didn't want to watch television. I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to do anything. All I could think to do was lay on the floor and cry, but I couldn't find my tears. I looked from Eric's deep blue eyes to Bill's warm brown ones. If I wanted to do anything, it was to lie between them and try to feel safe. The question was, would they agree?

"Will you just hold me?" I whispered, my voice full of ache and worry. Eric looked over my head at Bill. Bill deflected to Eric. "Both of you," I frowned.

"Whatever you need us to do, we'll do." Eric said, answering for himself as well as Bill. Bill simply nodded silently in agreement. The Viking led us into the bedroom. I crawled into the bed and under the covers. Eric removed his shirt and shoes, then crawled into bed. He faced me. I squirmed into his chest. Bill removed the same articles of his attire and slipped into the bed on the other side. I could feel his cool chest on my back, through Eric's shirt. His arm moved possessively around my waist. We lay there together in silence for a long time.

Finally, I closed my eyes.

I walked out onto the front porch, and there they were. Bodies on my porch. I was knee deep in blood. It swirled, thick and sticky, around my shins. My heart caught in my throat, and I couldn't swallow it again. Their bodies lay there, prone, dead, on my porch stairs. I walked back into the house and shut the door. If I go out the back door to go to work, they won't be there. My bare feet tracked red prints on the hardwood floor. Amelia would be so angry with me. Cleaning up blood was a chore. The back door flew open and I walked outside. There they were. Bodies on my porch. I was, once again, knee deep in blood. Their hands were clasped so tightly that their knuckles had gone white, whiter than the rest of their pale, empty bodies. I walked back into the house and shut the door. If the bodies were at the back porch, the front porch would be clear. I needed to get to work. I opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. There they were. Bodies on my porch.

No way out. No way out. No fucking way out!

I sat up suddenly and screamed. The porch was gone. The bodies were gone. I ripped away the sheets to see that my legs were clean. Eric's arm pulled me gently back down to the mattress. The bed was empty but for the two of us. Bill had gone, probably back to Bon Temps, to his own space.

"I have to go back." I said to Eric as his arm encircled me. Now it was his turn to sit up suddenly.

"No." He grunted. "You're staying here."

"They have a message for me. I have to go back." I closed my eyes. They were lingering just behind my eyelids.

"You're not going back, Sookie. You're staying here." He grabbed my arm forcefully and yanked me against him. I let out a squeak, but he wouldn't let go of me. His worry seemed to sink into my skin, through me until it filled my veins. "I absolutely forbid you to leave this house."

"You sleep during the day." I narrowed my eyes at him. My blood boiled with anger. What am I, his daughter? His servant? Don't think so! "I can just take your keys when you're asleep. You'll never even know I'm gone."

"God damn it, Sookie!" Eric roared at me. His deep blue eyes filled with rage, turning them three or four shades darker. A spark of fear started up in my gut, but it wasn't enough fear to suppress my anger. I glared right back at him, which probably wasn't very smart. "You need to stay away from that place! That thing has motivation. You're unusual. You have a supe for a brother. You're staying here, if I have to lock you up in the closet!"

"Is that a threat, Eric Northman?" I growled back at him.

"That's a promise, Sookie." He seethed at me, but behind his fierce scowl, I knew he was scared. Eric Northman, thousand year old vampire, big and scary man, was afraid I would end up like those kids on my porch.

I let the argument drop.

At least, for a little while.

I slept through the day, with Eric's arms and legs curled around me the way Bill used to cling to me. Eric rarely slept in such a way, as though something might take me away from him while he was defenseless. Whatever he smelled in the darkness, it scared him to the core. But me, Sookie Stackhouse? I was a lot of things, and scared was only one of them. I was also curious, angry, interested, and worried. What was that thing out there that we could feel but couldn't see? Why did it want to scare me so badly? What did it want from those children it had murdered? Would it get what it wanted out of me too? And why could I hear them, why was I drawn out to the site that I knew put me at risk? I lay in the bed all day, deathly still, and I thought.

"Eric," I murmured as the clock radio flicked over to 7:59. I shook his shoulder. He blinked at me, soothed my hair, and shut his eyes again. "Eric!"

"What?" He groaned. His eyes opened a second time.

"We need to go back to Bon Temps." I tried to sound more logical. I'd dealt with these problems all day. I was done being scared and shocked Sookie. Now I was ready and waiting Sookie.

"No." He said it like it was the end of the discussion.

"Eric, I'll be safe with you there. We need to go back. The answers to this whole mystery are there on my porch steps."

"No, Sookie," he said again.

"I need this to be over. I need my life to be normal again. Something is coming for me. We have to find it first." I'd worked these arguments out in my head.

"We're not going, Sookie." He had his hand on my wrist again.

"We need to go, Eric. We need to go back to Bon Temps. I have to go." I tugged at the arm in his grasp. I squirmed on the bed, trying to free myself from him.

"We're not going." Eric said. He tried to sound simple, straightforward, and blunt. He was giving in. I could feel it through the bond.

"We gotta go back." I said again. I managed to work one of my legs free.

"Sookie, listen to me," Eric frowned.

"No, Eric, listen to me." I didn't want to anger him. I turned my head to look into his deep blue eyes, and I touched his face. "I need to go back to Bon Temps. I need to go. And you need to be there with me." I was ready to lie through my teeth. "I feel safe with you."

Frankly, I didn't feel safe with anyone until that thing was gone. But Eric didn't need to know that right now. I felt safest when I was near him. But I was worried that even my Viking couldn't protect me from the thing in the darkness.

Eric got up. He'd relented. I don't know what it was inside of him that agreed. He was still angry, still worried, still scared for me. But something in him gave in to my intense desire. We walked out of the bedroom together, his hand still holding my wrist as if I might run for it the first chance I got. The car keys jingled. We got into the vehicle and sped off to Bon Temps. I felt like I was swimming down the mouth of a cave that turned out to be a man-eating monster.

The car rolled slowly down the gravel driveway and stopped about twenty feet before we reached the porch steps. Everything was surrounded in police tape, but at night, the scene was quiet. I remembered finding Gran in our kitchen, sprawled out on the floor, swimming in her own blood. My veins went cold, as though I'd stepped into a freezer in the middle of July. I scrambled in the dark car for Eric's hand and pulled it against my chest. He looked at me, and though I couldn't see his face, I knew that he was regretting bringing me out here in the first place.

"I can't pull up closer than this," he said quietly. He turned off the engine and reached across the brake to take my hands in his. "Are you ready?"

"No," I whimpered through pursed lips. He let go of my hand and I opened the car door. We got out at the same time and he came around my side to pull me against his torso. Even from a distance, I could see blood splatter on my white porch steps.

"We can go back," Eric reassured me, but we were already walking slowly toward the stairs. I clung to him, clutching his shirt with white fingers. Alarm bells went off in my brain. It was an effort to shut them down. I needed to do this.

"We can't go back," I replied quietly. Eric lifted me over the police tape and set me down on the staircase near where the bodies had been. I sat nervously on the bottom step and lifted my eyes to the blond vampire in front of me. He touched my shoulder with one hand, keeping his eyes up and alert for whatever might be out in the woods beyond the house.

The fog rested on my shoulders like a clouded dream. I pushed fear and memory from my mind and tried to focus on the lingering. It was there alright. The something that I'd felt at every crime scene was here too. I dared another quick glance at my lover, standing in front of me, his senses attuned to the quiet darkness. Then I closed my eyes to listen. Don't think. Don't breathe. Just listen.

So I listened.

We stayed that way for a long time, Eric scowling at the night, and me sitting on the bloody porch steps, listening to a fog that was supposed to speak to me. After an hour, Eric rubbed my shoulder to bring me back from the intense meditation. He crouched down in front of me and cupped my cheek in his large pale hand. I shook my head at him.

"There's nothing. I can't get it." I frowned, defeated. Whatever was out there, whatever was trying to contact me, I couldn't feel it anymore.

"We should go," Eric urged me. I nodded and stood up. We flew back over the police tape. I got back into the car.

"What does it mean that I can't hear it?" I asked out loud. Eric had no more answers than I did. He only shook his head and squeezed my hand.

"I don't know, Sookie."

We drove back to the house in silence. As we walked in, Eric's phone rang and he left me to answer it. I sat down on the edge of the sofa to think. There had been something in that mind-fog. I'd felt a presence, the same "something" that I'd felt before. It was there, just as it had always been. I was getting familiar with it now. Each time I'd gone to the murder site, I'd felt a weird…presence in the air. In my nightmares, something was watching me or trying to get me. Maybe there was something at the site, watching me, when I didn't know it. I was so distracted by the message that I couldn't feel eyes on me. But no, that seemed pointless. Why go to all the trouble of leaving a message to be deciphered if the message didn't actually mean anything? I let out a sigh and tried again.

Okay, so there had been two messages so far, and three murders. At the first site, I'd been pulled to it, specifically, even though I had no tie to it at all. That was surely a little strange. Then, at the site, I'd gotten this weird feeling, like something was under the mysterious sensation of just being in the presence of the murders. I'd heard a voice, a latent thought, and it had taken me a few minutes of being there with Eric to actually get the message. Maybe Eric had some connection to it that we couldn't understand? But what? Eric wasn't drawn to the site at all. He couldn't hear the messages, and he didn't know why I could hear them. All he got was an indistinct, mysterious odor.

Sookie, you're not getting anywhere with this. Try again.

The messages were about being siblings, and being lost in the woods. Hansel and Gretel had been siblings, though much younger than the murder victims, and they were lost in the woods. Okay, Sookie, so what? Well, the children were lost in the woods and a witch captured them and tried to eat them, but they outsmarted her and burned her alive. Maybe I was dealing with a witch? Although, I'm pretty sure the human head is not a delicacy.

I was back at square one again. What's the message? No idea.

Eric sat down on the sofa beside me.

"Are you hungry, lover?" He asked me, touching my arm. It occurred to me that I hadn't eaten for a couple of days, but I wasn't hungry at all.

"No, thank you."

"I have some work to do at the bar. Would you like to come?"

"No. I need to think."

"Just…promise me you won't leave here while I'm gone." He looked intently at me.

"I don't have anywhere to go." I said quietly.

"Call me if you need anything. Don't open the door for anyone, including someone you know."

"Fine." I nodded. I felt like I was being lectured by a parent, again.

His hand brushed my face lightly and he inclined my head. Eric's lips were gentle and fluid on mine. I closed my eyes to enjoy the tenderness.

When he left, I continued thinking where I'd left off. The car sped away outside. The house was still and silent. I leaned back on the cushions and stared at the ceiling.

It hit me suddenly like I'd been punched in the gut. The fog lifted and the thought, the message, filtered through my brain. I gasped at the suddenness of it. Then I scrambled for my phone. Eric's number was on speed dial. He answered it like he was out of breath.

"They were found." I said into the phone, displacing the pleasantries of typical conversation.

"What?" He choked.

"The message…" I said. Could I make it any clearer? "They were found. It found them."

And it was going to find me next.


	6. Chapter 6

**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

_Chapter 6_

I woke up the next day curled up in Eric's arms. When I'd figured out the message, he'd only driven a few blocks. He wheeled around immediately, afraid to leave me alone, and did his work over the phone with Pam. I flipped through a magazine about vampire business practices, stared at the ceiling, watched television (can you believe Eric has a tv?), and braided Eric's hair (into teensy tiny braids) until he got off the phone. We stayed up for most of the night talking, but I fell asleep around three in the morning.

Eric's hair was all unbraided again when I opened my eyes around one in the afternoon. Good thing too or he'd be a crazy tangled mess when he woke up. I doubted Eric had any Johnson & Johnson No More Tears Tangle Spray just lying around. I squirmed out from under Eric's arm and headed to the bathroom. I was grateful that though Eric had no real need for one, he had a toilet. What on earth would I have done without one? I washed my face, then decided to take a real shower. But then I was pretty much out of stuff to do.

My phone rang at ten to three and I was immediately grateful. I answered it before I'd even looked at who might be calling me.

"Sookie!" Jason, my deadbeat brother, was on the other end of the line. "Where the hell are you? The cops told me about the murders on the porch at your house, and that you're in protective custody, and no one would tell me where you are!"

"I'm in Shreveport. What do you want?"

"Hey. Easy now, sis. I was just makin' sure you were okay is all." He'd probably stick out his lower lip and pout.

"I'm fine. Look, I'm bored stiff. You want to come out for a late lunch?" I was finally hungry, after three days without food.

"Sure. Shreveport? You wanna go to that Mexican place by the shopping center?"

"Sure." I shrugged.

"Great. I'll head out now." He hung up. It wasn't until after he did that I'd forgotten to beg him not to bring Crystal.

After almost an hour, I grabbed Eric's keys off the hook by the door (that Viking, so organized) and went out to the car. I know, I know what you're thinking. Eric would NEVER, EVER let you drive his car. But darnit, I was so bored I could scream, and hey, it's still daylight! I'll be back before Eric wakes up and nobody'll be the wiser. I didn't have my purse, or, really, anything, so I just threw my butt in the car wearing the clothes I'd hand-washed in Eric's kitchen sink, and drove out to the Mexican place Jason had mentioned.

My brother was already there, standing by his flaming black pick-up truck. He threw his big ol' arms around me and pulled me close, which was a little awkward. We went inside together and got a table near one of the outside windows. When the waitress arrived, I ordered a burrito platter with black beans and rice. Jason ordered enchiladas. We were both starving. I wolfed down my food while Jason stared at me.

"I haven't had much of an appetite," I said, my mouth full of tortilla.

"Yeah, I get that. Did you really…uh…" _Find the bodies yourself? _I don't normally go digging around in my brother's brain, but sometimes it just happens without my realizing it.

"Yeah," I nodded, though my answer was more muffled. I'd found bodies on my porch. That was still bugging at me a lot.

"Wow," was all Jason could say in response. He cut his enchilada in half and gave me some. I took it without argument. I was pretty much starving.

"Do you think you could take me home?" I asked him suddenly, before I'd even realized what I was saying. Jason put down his fork and surveyed me. He had no reason to suspect that what I was asking was particularly unusual, except that I'd driven myself to the restaurant. The thing is, I don't know why I wanted to go there. I didn't even realize I wanted to leave the restaurant and go to Bon Temps until the words came out of my mouth. But as soon as they had, all I wanted to do was drive back to the farmhouse.

"Uh, sure Sookie, but you have a car here." He pointed outside at the gorgeous red Corvette. "Isn't it your boyfriend's?"

"He wouldn't like me borrowing it all the way to Bon Temps," I said. That was true. He wouldn't like me borrowing it at all. But then, he wouldn't want me going to Bon Temps regardless of which car I rode in.

"Oh. Sure, I can drive you home. But aren't you under like protective custody or somethin'?" He looked at me quizzically and took a bite of refried beans.

"It's no biggie. It's not like there are cops guarding Eric's place or anything." I shrugged. The inexplicable desire to be back at home filled me. But maybe I was just bored. I was already out of Eric's house, getting a little taste of freedom. I had the cabin fever at Eric's place when he was asleep. I couldn't go back to deal with three more hours of sunlight while he slept. I'd go crazy. But why Bon Temps? Why wouldn't I ask my brother to the movies or an arcade or a clothing store?

"We should go now," I said to him. I put down the rest of my burrito. I was still hungry. Hell, I was still chewing. Something inside of me was dragging me to the car, and in all honesty, I wanted to go.

"I'm still eating, Sook," Jason said. But he got up. He threw some bills on the table. We left.

I stuck Eric's keys in my pocket and crawled up into the cab of Jason's truck. The seatbelt made an unzipping noise as I pulled it down over my chest and clicked it. Jason jumped in next to me and turned on the ignition. The car revved up, and we rolled backward out of the parking lot. I looked around the cab. It was strewn with all manner of crap. There were cups on the floor, wrappers on the seats, cigarettes courtesy of his sleazy wife, turned over ash trays, beer bottles, soda cans, and who knows what all else. I blinked at Jason.

"This is disgusting," I frowned at him.

"Hey now, I spend all day in this car. Stuff gets messy. It's no big deal." Jason shrugged. He turned on the radio. Rock music from the 1970s filled the car and blasted my ear drums. I wrung up my nose at him, but my brother wouldn't turn the volume down. I unbuckled my seatbelt and crawled over the armrest to get into the small backseat. I found a Taco Bell takeout bag in the mess.

I bent down on the floor between the seats and rummaged in the debris, scooping up bits of paper, receipts, and soda cans. I even found four bucks and a handful of loose change. Finders, keepers, right? I put the money in my pocket and continued cleaning up. The bag of trash and junk filled up quickly and I had to search for another receptacle.

"So Crystal's thinkin' of tryin' for another baby," Jason yelled over the speakers. The blood in my face drained out. Oh lordy.

"Oh?" I squeaked, though I wasn't sure my brother heard me. He shrugged and rolled down his window. He bent his elbow on the frame.

"I told her I don't care. Whatever she wants to do, but I don't think it's gonna work. She's miscarried a lot already." I shrugged. I wondered how many times 'a lot' was for a girl from Hotshot.

"That's supportive of you," I muttered since he couldn't hear me anyway. I found a grocery bag on the floor under Jason's seat and began filling it up with crap from between the seats.

"The thing is, Sook, I don't think I really want babies. I mean, I was excited before, but Crystal? Man, I shoulda re-thought that one."

Yeah, I thought. You shoulda. I shook my head. My brother, ladies and gentlemen. Four apples short of a bushel. Good thing he's pretty.

I stuck my head around to the front seat to collect more stuff, but I popped my head up over the dash. It seemed like we'd been driving for awhile. We'd been through two blocks of awfully loud music, several sets of annoying commercials for motorcycle repair shops and new mattresses, and we still hadn't reached the parish limits.

"Jason, where are we?" I blinked at the road. The trees had bent around us and they blocked out most of the evening sun. It was about quarter to six now, but with the way the forest holed us up, it looked like it was nearly sunset. The road was quiet and rural. There were no traffic lines, or signs, on the street. Jason reached up to rub the back of his head. He blinked at the road like he was seeing it for the first time.

"Damn it, Jason Stackhouse, you're driving the freakin' car!" I yelled, balling my hands into fists. I threw the bag of crap at him and it rolled past his head and fell out the window. Shit.

"Don't yell at me, Sookie! This was your idea!" As if that made a difference, or something!

"Jason!" I shrieked. The road ran out from under us. The tires grumbled as we hit gravel, and then dirt. Jason grabbed the wheel tightly and swerved the car. The engine made an unusual noise, and the front tires jammed into something big and heavy. I fell backward on the seat and smacked my head against the window.

"Shit!" Jason growled, slamming on the breaks. I jumped forward, smacking my arm on the armrest. Okay, ow.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I swore at my brother.

"We hit something!" Jason scowled. He got out of the car, hopped onto the ground, and went to inspect his tires.

"What?" I frowned when I'd fallen out of the cab. I rubbed the back of my skull in a weird and unintentional imitation of Jason. He was standing near the front tire. It looked deflated. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I know, right?" Jason gestured at the tire. "These wheels are brand-fuckin'-new!"

"Maybe they overfilled them,"

"Maybe you're just bad luck!"

"Don't! Don't even!" I waved my fist at him. "You got us lost in the middle of bum-fuck-Egypt! Let's just go back to the road and try to find some help, okay?"

"Wait, I have Triple A!" Jason pulled his phone out of his pocket. He looked at it, gave it a shake like an Etch-a-Sketch, and then held it up to the sky.

"No signal?" I asked him.

"Let's just find the damn road."

We started walking. I led the way, following the truck's tire tracks in the dirt. Jason took up the rear, stopping to hold his phone out to the sky every couple of seconds.

"Ever wonder what people did without cell phones?" Jason asked me in the kind of voice reserved specifically for idiots lost in the woods.

"No Jason. I just bought one last year."

"Do you have it with you?" He got all excited.

"Jason, if you don't have a signal on that fancy thing that the parish bought you for work, what makes you think I have a signal with this lousy thing I bought at Walmart for twenty bucks?"

"Good point." He paused for a minute. "Let me try it anyway."

"Will you shut up about it?" I asked him, but I already had the phone in my hand. I flipped it open. No signal. I even held it up to show him. He nodded sadly.

"Bummer."

"Wasn't the road around here somewhere?" I blinked. We'd been walking for about ten minutes by then. Surely we hadn't been on the dirt for more than twenty yards. I spun around. Trees in every direction.

"Maybe we went the wrong way," Jason said.

"Yeah," I frowned. Except that I'd been following our tire tracks, and now they were gone. We were walking in dense foliage.


	7. Chapter 7

**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

_Chapter 7_

"I know it's here somewhere," I sighed. I turned around in a circle. Bad idea, Sookie. Which way were you facing before? I looked around again. But I couldn't remember. Jason stopped near my side to take off his shirt. It was ridiculously warm out, nearing eighty degrees and humid as all get out. I wanted to disrobe too, and I was wearing my work uniform which barely covered anything at all.

"I think it's this way," Jason pointed off in some direction to his left. He'd tucked his tee shirt into the waist of his jeans.

"Why that way?" I asked. Jason only shrugged. We took off in that direction, but only because it seemed like as good of an idea as any other direction. I stomped through the decomposing forest floor, grateful that I had shoes unlike dream-Sookie.

"All I wanted to do was go home," I sighed. I pulled my phone out of my pocket again and held it up to the sky. The minutes ticked by. I still had no signal.

"I'll get you there, Sookie." Jason said. Anger prickled under my skin. He'd get me there? Look where he'd gotten me!

"You'll get me there?" I barked at him. "You'll get me there?! Look where you got me, Jason! We don't even know where we are!"

"I think we're near my house," Jason said thoughtfully. He kept walking.

"How the hell do you know that?" My anger flared. I suppressed the urge to grab him by the neck.

"I can smell it," he tapped his nose.

"Right."

"No, no, I think it's left. Come on," he took an immediate left. I followed.

The thick covering of dead foliage crackled and crunched and made weird squishing noises as I followed my brother through the woods. Something in my gut told me he was wrong. We weren't near the house we'd grown up in. We weren't near anything. The road I'd been trying to get us back to was way out beyond our reach. Was it ahead of us? Was it behind us? I had no idea. And worse, I had no idea how to get an idea of where we were. Why couldn't my big brother have been a boy scout or something? Don't they teach little boys to tie knots and build fires and find their way out of the woods?

I looked at my phone to get a grip on the time at least. It was nearly sunset, even though by the look of the woods you'd guess that time had come and gone already. It was so very, very dark under the dense canopy. I stretched out my hand and felt around for my brother. I could hear him breathing, but the direction of that breath was beyond me.

"Jason!" I yelled, perhaps a bit more loudly than was necessary.

"Sookie, I'm right here. Relax." I heard his voice to my right. I stepped so close to him that I could feel his body heat radiating from his skin. He smelled like sweat and some kind of sickly smelling cologne. Yuck.

"It's really dark," I said to him. Stating the obvious was okay with my brother because, let's face it, he's rather oblivious.

"Yeah," Jason agreed.

"Any idea where we are?"

"Sure." He lied. I didn't even have to read his thoughts to know that.

"Gonna keep going?"

"Yeah." He trudged off again and I stumbled forward, intent on following him. For a second, I was weightless. And then I crashed into the ground. A stabbing pain jolted through my left knee. I heard Jason wobble around, hopefully to face me.

"Sookie!" He yelped. Yeah, he'd heard me face plant on dead leaves and grass. Great. I worked my shoe out from under a tree root.

"I'm fine," I muttered, suppressing a swear. "I think I just skinned my knee."

"Here, let me give you a hand." Jason thrust his hand at me. It more or less landed on my shoulder and I took his arm to pull myself up.

Somewhere out beyond the trees, a light went out. I thought it was dark before, but it was simply pitch black now. I stuck my hand out and grabbed onto Jason's arm. I couldn't tell you his reaction, if he blinked at me or started to make a comment, or what. His muscles stiffened a little bit and he pushed my hand down to clamp his palm around mine. There we were, brother and sister, lost in the woods, holding onto one another like little kids.

Okay, so yeah, I was a little worried about that.

Jason yanked me back onto a new foot path, though I'm sure he had no idea where we were going. I felt a bush brush against my bare leg, and then Jason grumbled when he ran smack into a tree trunk. I guess Jason's supe abilities were only really noticeable when he was actually in that freaky half-man, half-panther form. For now, he was just Jason Stackhouse, directionless moron. Not that I was really any help in that area. I could barely make out my hand in front of my face.

My phone began to ring and I nearly dropped it on the ground, I was so shocked. Finally, a lucky break! I flipped open the phone and the ringing stopped. I mean, it instantly stopped. I stared at it.

"Sookie, who is it?" Jason asked me, clutching my hand and looking over my shoulder at the phone.

"I don't know," I frowned. "It hung up."

"What do you mean, it hung up?" Jason asked, like an idiot.

"What do you mean 'what do I mean,' Jason? The signal died or something. The stupid thing hung up!"

And then it started ringing again. I fumbled with the device and clicked the answer button that lit up on the keypad. But as soon as I hit the button, it hung up. Again.

"Damnit, Sookie!" Jason yelled at me. He snatched the phone from my hand and held it up in every direction. I watched the little light on the screen dart around in the darkness like a big square firefly. I tell you, it was a little weird. Then it started to ring again. Jason clicked the answer key with his thumb. He pressed it to his ear.

"Hello?!" Jason yelled into the phone. He held it back from his face. It had hung up again.

"Look, it's just the signal," I said, pointing to the bars on the phone where the signal should be. There weren't any.

"But why would it ring if there wasn't a signal?"

"I don't know!" I barked at him. This was getting irritating.

Jason handed me my phone and dropped my hand at the same time. I groped around in the dark, searching around for him, but no luck. I could hear him crashing around in the vegetation, looking for a way out of wherever we'd ended up. I took a step forward to stretch out to him again.

"Jason!" I hissed. "Where are you?"

"Just a sec, Sook. I think I got a fix on it." I heard his voice carry through the black, and I turned my head in the direction I thought it came from.

"Jason!" I hissed again. "Don't leave me here!"

_Don't leave me here. _

I whipped my head around, looking for the source. That was a thought, and it wasn't Jason's thought either. I turned the other way and listened.

_Don't leave me here. _

It repeated, louder. I perked up in the direction of the sound, listening carefully with all of my senses attuned. I was going to regret ever leaving Eric's side in about three seconds.

The thoughts filled my head like I'd suddenly been shoved into a crowded room without my guards up. I couldn't separate one thought from the next, and I couldn't tell you what any particular one was about. A cacophony of noises spiraled into my head, jamming out everything else. There were men's voices, women's voices, and the voices of small children. They swirled around in my head, jarring my ears and throbbing my temples. I closed my eyes and fought to push my walls up, but it was like trying to block an army out with a piece of plywood. The thoughts simply knocked my walls back down like crashing through 1 ply toilet paper.

I dropped to my knees and covered my ears with my hands. I pressed tighter and tighter against my head, but it was no use. I wasn't hearing through my ears anyway. My mobile phone dropped out of my hand as I doubled over on the ground, clawing at my hair. The thoughts became louder, closer together, crowded into my head like people freaking out in a fire where all the doors and windows are nailed shut. I could feel hot tears on my face, and my muscles tensed with pressure. Alarm bells were going off and I couldn't put out the fire. Oh sweet Jesus Shepherd of Judea, make it stop!

Jason's hands clamped down suddenly on my shoulders. A new strain of thoughts poured into me. I could barely hear him over the din. He was worried, couldn't see me. Had I fallen on my butt again? Why wasn't I answering? Why wasn't I more coordinated? Why were we lost? Why had I brought him out here? Why why why why why?!

"LET GO OF ME!" I screamed so loudly that my whole body shook. Jason's hands fell away, but his thoughts continued to stream into my brain, along with every other possible thought for hundreds of miles in every direction. It felt like all of Louisiana had come to a party in my head, and I'd run out of chips and dip. My eyes watered and burned. My head seemed to split open and still nothing relieved the pain. I knew I was screaming, but I couldn't hear my own voice.

I could feel Jason close by, probably staring at me in horror or confusion or both. I fought to open my eyes and instantly regretted it. They blazed with pain. I looked at my brother, standing in the overwhelming darkness. Something was standing behind him, filling the forest with an eerie glowing white light.

"ERIC!" I wailed, buckling down to lean my elbows on the ground. I still had my hands over my ears. But as the thing came closer, I knew it wasn't Eric.

It was something else.

The thing edged through the darkness as though it were floating about the earth. The thoughts in my head grew louder and louder with each inch he gained on our location. My screams broke and my voice was raspy and thick with phlegm. I tried to crawl toward Jason, but he only stood there, stock still, watching the thing that came at us in the dark.

I dropped even closer to the ground, lying my head on the old leaves. Thoughts seemed to well up from the earth and fill my head. I tried to tuck my knees against my body and bury my head between them. Nothing blocked out the noise. Nothing. It was a struggle to keep my eyes open, to watch as the pitch black sky filled with just a twinge of bright shining light. I stared up as the sliver of crescent moon, almost invisible in the dense forest, swelled to fullness. I begged it to stop, whimpering and pleading with my broken voice box. Jason's eyes lifted to the moon. He stared at it for a long time, and when he looked back at me, briefly, his irises were golden.

It had found us.


	8. Chapter 8

**Turn Your Back to the Forest**

_Chapter 8_

I've never seen Jason change, and although I was almost blinded by my own pain, I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. The same kind of sick sloppy noise I heard around Alcide and Quinn was present, but the noise didn't hinder my ability to watch him. His nose changed, flattening against his face, and his eyes turned up into almonds. Whiskers punched through his upper lip, and fur sprouted on his cheeks and throat. His ears elongated and repositioned themselves, crawling up over his head and sitting atop his crown. Because his chest was bare, I could see the pectorals and abdomen ripple and change. More fur, as black as the night, covered his shoulders and stomach, his back and his arms. His fingernails grew out like claws. A tail pulled free of his jeans and swished in the air.

A hand jumped out and clamped around my brother's throat, choking off the yowl he was about to make. His mouth stretched wide to complete the sound, but he only coughed and struggled against his captor. The thing in the darkness seemed to glow, brighter and bolder as soon as it took Jason in it's grasp. I could barely make out the fact that it had a human-like anatomy, two arms and two legs, a muscular torso, only one head.

The thoughts still plagued me, filling my body with an indescribable amount of pain. But I couldn't shut my eyes. I couldn't abandon my deadbeat, oblivious, abnormal, horny as all get out brother. I groped my hands across the dirty ground, tugging at the leaves and grass for a good hold. I got my knees up under my body, and I bent down to put my palms flat.

Then I pushed myself up, wobbling all the way. As soon as I was steady, or as steady as I could manage, I fumbled over to Jason and the glowing humanoid thing that held him. I tugged at its arm, trying to pull its fingers away. I couldn't help but raise my eyes to stare at it.

The human-like creature was exquisitely beautiful. He reminded me instantly of Claude, the super-intense version. His pearly white skin was criss-crossed with the shadows of his muscular physique. His mouth was turned up into a smile that was neither frightening nor awesome. It was only beautiful, insanely beautiful. His eyes regarded me for a second. They were black, a blackness that filled up every millimeter of the eyeball. It reminded me of something dipped in India Ink. But why would you dip eyeballs in ink? Wouldn't that hurt?

His other arm reached out as I stood there like some sort of fool, and he clamped around my throat. The ground fell away as he lifted me up into the air. My breath choked off. The thoughts were even louder than before, so painful and so mind-blowing that I shut my eyes and screamed a silent sort of scream. I gasped and writhed, lifting my arms up to tug at his fingers. I scratched and clawed at him. My field of vision blurred and reddened as if I were looking through rose-colored glasses. I tried to turn to Jason for help, but he looked limp and broken.

Meanwhile, the thing, our attacker, glowed all the brighter. Jason and I were like plugs for the world's largest light bulb. I shut my eyes for a moment to block the light out and saw spots in my eyes as though I'd been photographed hundreds of times without ever blinking. There was a loud humming in my ears, and still the thoughts filled me. I knew I was wailing, screaming, crying, aching to breathe, but I couldn't hear a damn thing.

I opened my eyes again to see the thing, pink and spotty in my strange blurred vision. The blinding white light gave it an aura, a glow that bounced off of the trees and lit up the forest. The thing was like a beacon. If it kept beaming that way, would the light burn out? Appropriate question. Everything went suddenly and inexplicably dark.

Lights out.

I opened my eyes as if I hadn't opened them in days. My irises, my pupils burned like I'd attacked myself with matches or stood in the middle of a forest fire or some other thing that's really bad for you. I closed them. Then I opened them again. The thoughts had disappeared and at last my mind was at peace. The humming in my ears only continued, at a higher pitch than before.

Everything was fuzzy and muddled and pink. Rose-colored beer goggles. I felt a little sick.

"Jason," I croaked, so loudly that I could hear a tiny sound in my own ears. Oh good. Not deaf. But if there was a response, I couldn't hear it. I rolled over on my side and sat up, slowly, from the ground. Good sign. I still had all of my body parts, and I wasn't being choked to death anymore. Definitely good. Good stuff.

A man with a faint glow was standing in the wood, holding a dark, crippled figure in its arms. The figure dropped limply on the ground while I watched. Everything looked pink, but a much darker, much redder liquid rolled down the face of the faintly outlined man standing a few feet away from me. He was the only thing in my vicinity that appeared to be alive. I watched as he walked closer to me. I couldn't have moved out of the way if I wanted to do so. He crouched down beside me and took my cheek in his hand.

His pupils, dark red as they appeared to me, were dilated so widely that I could only make out the faintest ring of iris around them. He smelled of blood, and it was so strong a scent that it made me want to wretch. He moved his lips to speak, and I could see that his mouth was dark with what was probably blood. His clean pink (well pink to me) teeth were stained around their edges with dark red. His lips formed the syllables of my name. I heard the very end of the pronunciation over the ringing.

Eric slid his arms beneath me and pulled me carefully into his embrace. He shot straight up into the humid night, though he seemed to fly drunkenly, wavering to and fro on a generalized course. I looked down for a moment to catch a glimpse of Jason's pick-up truck, sitting idle, maybe fifteen feet from when Eric had found me. We flew for a long time, with me huddled against Eric's body like a baby marsupial. I closed my eyes for awhile, and when I opened them again, I was laying in Eric's bedroom.

He was staring at me, silent as the grave, his eyes as wide as saucers. His pupils were still strangely dilated, almost erasing the hint of blue that had ringed them earlier. I had questions, so many questions, but neither of us was in the frame of mind or physical state to address them. Eric's skin seemed to crackle and spark like live wire. His lips were partly open and the way he watched me, I wondered what thoughts were drifting through his mind.

I was glad I couldn't hear them.

I slept, a dreamless sleep of the dead. I never tossed nor turned. I never awakened screaming nor broken with sweat. When at last I opened my eyes, I knew I had spent almost twenty-four hours asleep. Pain tore at my eyes, but I fought to keep them open.

I could feel Eric wrapped around me, his arm slung protectively over my torso, his leg crooked around my legs. He was watching me again, but his eyes had normalized. I struggled to block out whatever he might be feeling. I only wanted me inside of me.

"What was it?" I whispered hoarsely, only then aware that I could the world around me again.

"A demon," Eric said. His voice was icy and yet full of remorse. He pulled me closer to him, as if I could get any closer. "It was a demon that hunted siblings with supernatural abilities."

"Well, that's specific," I quipped. I tried to laugh. Eric didn't.

"I told you not to leave," he growled. His voice was so deep and so low that it vibrated through my skin. Normally that would turn me on, but not now.

"It lured me out," I said quietly. I hadn't even realized that was the case until I said it.

But it made sense. The thoughts at the crime scene? They weren't the thoughts of dead children but the weird ability of the demon that attacked me. It dragged me out to the first site to watch me. I had felt it in my dreams, but I was so distracted by the "fog" that I couldn't feel it in reality. I had no reason to want to go home with Jason. He'd gotten unexplainably lost in the woods in his car, even though we've lived in Bon Temps all our lives. It was all part of his plan to trap us and kill us.

"It wished to feed on you, to possess you," Eric sounded hungry when he spoke, as if he wished to do those things to me too. Some tiny part of me felt like he deserved it, with all the trouble I'd caused. Luckily, it was only a tiny part of me.

"You fed on it first," I whispered, mostly in awe of him. Eric nodded. He closed his eyes. Was his skin really that pink or was it my faulty vision? He was radiating.

"It was not dissimilar to a fairy's blood. I will be sated for months."

"I'm glad you killed it," I sighed. My arms slipped up around his neck. I buried my head in his shoulder. He felt almost warm.

After a moment, he held me out away from his chest and looked down into my eyes. The not tired, not sore, not aching part of me wanted to kiss him, to thank him for saving my life…again. The rest of me only wanted to be held.

"Do not disobey me again, Sookie," Eric said. His eyes narrowed. "I worry…for your safety."

Part of me wanted to protest, to tell him I was my own woman, that I could come and go as I pleased.

But crap. Look how well that turned out, right? I'd practically starred in a real-life version of some poorly made horror movie. All I'd been missing was a strategically ripped tee shirt.

I nodded solemnly. And right then and there, I decided to make the end of the movie as X-rated as Jamie Lee Curtis had always wanted to be. I pushed aside the pain and thanked Eric for saving my life. He didn't deny me the pleasure.


End file.
